67 pages • 2 hours read

Americanah

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Chapters 3-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2

Chapter 3 Summary

Back in the hair braiding salon, Aisha tries to convince Ifemelu to speak to her boyfriend, but Ifemelu demurs. Ifemelu flashes back to her teenage years, which were marked by her mother’s dramatic religious conversion. Ifemelu’s mother goes from church to church, becoming more devout, and “Ifemelu watched her mother’s essence take flight” (50). Ifemelu’s father regards the scene with quiet “exasperation” (51). Ifemelu’s Aunty Uju, a young doctor with dreams of opening a clinic, finds a wealthy mentor in a government official called The General. Soon afterwards, Ifemelu’s father loses his civil service job “for refusing to call his new boss Mummy” (56). He sinks into a depression, rarely moving from the couch. One day, at church, Ifemelu argues with Sister Ibinado, a snooty, self-righteous member of the congregation and is sent home after she objects to making flower garlands for men she considers corrupt. Her mother is furious, but Uju manages to diffuse the situation, reminding Ifemelu that “‘You don’t have to say everything’” (65).

Chapter 4 Summary

The next chapter continues in flashback, to Ifemelu and Obinze’s secondary school years. Obinze, a handsome new student, arrives at Ifemelu’s school, and the other boys decide that he should date Ginika, the prettiest girl in their year. However, Obinze takes an immediate liking to Ifemelu. At a party, the two dance and then go outside to get to know one another. They discuss Obinze’s mother, a professor with strong convictions, and Obinze declares his intention to “chase” (72) Ifemelu. Ifemelu is intrigued, and they debate their favorite books and Nigerian proverbs. They kiss and agree to start dating. Both fall hard and fast for each other. Obinze cheers Ifemelu on at debate club until even her own friends complain and she sits on the sidelines at his football games. Still, Ifemelu is not content. “Sometimes she worried that she was too happy” (76).

Chapter 5 Summary

Since Obinze chose Ifemelu over Ginika, the girls’ friendship suffers, and “Ifemelu felt burdened with guilt” (77). Then, Ginika’s father announces that the family will be moving to America. Ginika is heartbroken, but Ifemelu is secretly relieved. Their group of friends gathers to sort through Ginika’s possessions and joke that Ginika will return with a pretentious American accent and think that Nigeria is backwards—she will become an “Americanah” (78). The friends discuss their various connections to other countries—some have British or American passports, while some, like Obinze, just narrowly missed the opportunity. Though many of her friends are wealthy, Ifemelu entered her school on a scholarship. Obinze, on the other hand, is privileged. “To be here, among people who had gone abroad, was natural for him” (80). Ifemelu thinks about all the way her life differs from Obinze’s, and wonders if Ginika would have been the better partner for him, after all.

Obinze invites Ifemelu to his house. His mother wants to meet her. Though Ifemelu is nervous, Obinze’s mother is kind and welcoming, if not a little strange. “There was something,” Ifemelu thinks, “about the woman that made [Ifemelu] want to say intelligent things” (83). Ifemelu begins to visit Obinze’s house each weekend, helping his mother to bake and spending time with Obinze. Obinze’s mother asks if they’ve done anything sexual, and Ifemelu says they have not. His mother advises her to wait. “‘You can love without making love’” (87), she assures Ifemelu. She asks Ifemelu to tell her when she and Obinze begin having sex, which exasperates Obinze, but Ifemelu is taken by his mother’s tone, “the evenness of it, the normalness of it” (88).

Chapter 6 Summary

Aunty Uju has begun an affair with her mentor, The General, and he has set her up in a lavish house. Ifemelu watches the scene warily, noting how Uju “steadied herself into her new life with a lightness of touch, more consumed by The General himself than by her new wealth” (89). Ifemelu asks to be allowed to stay with Uju, as her house is closer to the school, but her father denies the request. The landlord visits Ifemelu’s house again, demanding back payment of the rent. Her father accepts a loan from Uju, who of course received the money from her lover. Ifemelu discovers that Uju has no money of her own—she subsists off The General’s generosity. “Ifemelu felt frightened for her” (92). Uju lives an enclosed, pampered life now, gossiping with friends The General handpicked for her. She pays Ifemelu’s family’s rent for two years, but her brother “did not look her in the face as he thanked her” (95).

Ifemelu meets The General briefly and finds that he is old and boorish, with yellow eyes that suggest a “malnourished childhood” (95). A failed coup scares Uju, but The General emerges unscathed. After The General stands Uju up on a date and Uju berates her maid for no reason, Ifemelu calls her aunt out, saying that the real problem is The General, not the maid. Uju slaps her. Their relationship is never quite the same after that. Uju becomes pregnant with The General’s child, and he promises to do the right thing. The child, a boy named Dike, is born, but The General dies in a suspicious plane crash right after Dike’s first birthday. The General’s relatives storm Uju’s house and attempt to throw her out. Uju fends them off, but realizes that everything was in The General’s name, and she has nothing of her own. Uju and Dike flee to America.

Chapter 3-6 Analysis

These chapters set up two key elements of Ifemelu’s personality: independence and outspokenness.

When Aunty Uju finds a mentor in The General, she and Ifemelu’s mother are delighted, Ifemelu, however, is wary. “Maybe there was a kind of miracle in those words, I like you, I want to take care of you, Ifemelu thought, but not in the way her mother meant it” (56). Ifemelu is horrified when she discovers that Uju has no money in her bank account, and is living entirely off The General’s good graces. She feels herself pulling away from Uju, who had once been her closest confidante. “For the first time, Ifemelu felt older than Aunty Uju, wiser and stronger” (100). This estrangement, coupled with Ifemelu’s father’s unemployment and their landlord demands for back rent, makes Ifemelu fiercely independent. Throughout the novel, she refuses to be dependent on men, and is unhappy when she must be.

Secondly, we see Ifemelu for the blunt, outspoken person she is. When she first meets Obinze, this is what attracts him to her. Though he is pushed towards the sweet, kind Ginika, he finds Ifemelu’s spirit more intriguing. “‘You looked like the kind of person who will do something because you want to, not because everyone else is doing it’” (73). Obinze is a good judge of character. An example of Ifemelu’s tendency to speak her mind despite the consequences occurs during church, when she refuses to make garlands for men she considers corrupt. She knows that this will anger her family, but “the words rushed up her throat” (63). This bluntness will recur throughout Ifemelu’s story. It is what makes her a successful blogger later in life, but can warp and twist into an unattractive judgmental side that alienates those close to her. Even after the incident at church, Ifemelu’s mother says: “‘Do not judge. Leave the judging to God!’” (63).